Please Don't Leave Me
by KakashisDenimAngel
Summary: Neji and Tenten are married but what happens when something bad happens during a mission.
1. Prologue: The battle

**Please Don't Leave Me**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto that honor belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

This is my first attempt at writing a fan fiction story. Please comment and let me know what you think about it. Any ideas would be welcome as well.

Prologue: The battle

They were still surrounded by enemy shinobi and didn't know if they were going to make it home alive. Neji had his Byakugan activated trying to find a whole in the enemies' attack that him and Tenten could get through. All he saw was dozens of enemy shinobi gathered around them and no whole. Standing back to back with her he sadly told her of their situation. They both knew that at least one of them had to make it home alive for the sake of their children. "How many?" she asked him. "I see at least fifty and there could be more", he replied with no trace of emotion. She knew him for years and even though he did not show it, she knew that he was scared for them. He was trying to come up with a plan that would get them safely home but he just didn't see how he could.

She glanced over her shoulder at her teammate, best friend, and husband with a question in her eyes that he understood without her saying a single word, and just sadly shook his head no. She looked around her at the dead bodies littering the ground, among them their teammate Rock Lee. His body lay with many kunai and shuriken sticking out of it. He had put up one hell of a fight taking out quite a few enemies before he received a fatal kunai to his chest and fell to the ground. She just wanted to give in to the grief that was consuming her and collapse in tears over the death of her teammate. Rock Lee wasn't just her teammate though, he was her friend and she thought of him as a brother figure to her. As she fought for control of her emotions she realized that giving in to her feelings now would just get her and Neji killed so she gathered her strength and pushed it to the back of her mind. At times like these she envied Neji his ability to not let anything get to him. She remembers that quite a few people used to consider him cold-blooded because of it. "Well I guess its time for that jutsu isn't it?" she asked him.

Neji stared back at Tenten with a look that said are you sure? She nodded her head and prepared to use her kekki genkai. She closed her eyes held out her hands and concentrated on gathering her chakra from her body, ore from the earth around her, and moisture from the air into her hands. When she opened her eyes again they were a silver color, slitted like a dragon's eye, and there was a ball of liquid metal in front of her. As she concentrated even more on the ball of liquid it started to form hundreds of kunai, shuriken, and senbon. All of the weapons hovered there in front of her as she took a deep breath and looked to her teammate. "OK Neji, where are they at?" By using subtle signals that only Tenten would be able to see and decipher Neji related where the enemy was hiding at. After getting the information from Neji she sent the first round of weapons towards the enemy forces. Several screams and grunts were heard coming from the enemy as a barrage of weapons headed their way. Neji performed his Kaiten spinning around Tenten while he did so in order to protect her as much as possible. He heard a small grunt of pain from her as she was struck by a couple of shuriken in her arms and legs. After he was done with his maneuver he looked around them again. "OK Tenten we're down to about thirty now and they have moved position so that they are closer to us." Again he gave her subtle signals that she followed to launch her second wave of attack with more screams coming from the interior of the forest. As enemy shinobi appeared in front of them Neji told her, "Good job Tenten, there is only about a dozen left. All we have to do is finish off these guys and we can go home. Let's do this." They both focused their concentration on the enemies as they fought. Sometime during the fight they had become separated from each other but they did not let that distract them from their battles.

"8 Trigrams 64 Palms", Neji cried out as his hands started flying at the shinobi coming at him. As the enemy kept appearing in front of him he realizes that he may have misjudged the number of shinobi left for them to fight hand to hand. Left and right they kept coming just to drop dead in front of him a few seconds later. Neji had just used his Gentle Fist technique to dispatch the last of the enemy in front of him when he turned to look for his partner. He found her a few yards away in the middle of fighting three enemies when his gaze saw something horrifying happen and heard a petrifying scream come from her lips.

Another enemy appeared behind Tenten causing her to lose her focus for a split second. That split second of concentration loss was what her enemy had been waiting for as he pulled out a katana from a sheath at his side and plunged it through her chest. Tenten screamed in agonizing pain and felt her strength slowly leave her body. Before she could crumple to the ground in a pitiful heap her inner voice screamed at her

**DON'T YOU DARE GIVE IN YET! We have to make it through this for Neji and the children's sakes. We still have one trick up our sleeves that we can use****. **

_You don't mean for us to use the Dragon's Breath do you? _She thought to her inner self.

**You better believe it!** her inner self replied.

_Oh great, my inner self is starting to sound like that annoying orange clad idiot Naruto. Well I guess it wouldn't hurt to try it but you know that it will drain quite a bit of my chakra to perform it, right? _

We can do it I know we can, besides it will finish this battle then we can go home with our man.

_Our__ man? He is my man. Shut up now so I can concentrate._

Tenten slowly gathered her chakra getting ready to release her newest jutsu. She could feel the warm sticky blood running down her chest to her pants leg. She pushed the thought to the back of her mind before it made her nauseous. The weapons mistress of Konoha got queasy at the smell of blood who would've ever thought that. Her eyes changed from silver to a reddish-orange color signaling that she was ready to go. "Dragon's Breath Jutsu!" What seemed like molten metal shot out of her mouth engulfing the enemy whose screams echoed in Tenten's head as everything around her faded to black.

Left a little cliffhanger for everyone. For those of you who are confused about Tenten's Kekki Genkai, it will be explained in a further chapter. I hope to get the next chapter up in a couple of days.


	2. Chapter 1: The blackness

**Please Don't Leave Me**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto that honor belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

Here is chapter one of my story. I want to take this opportunity to thank those who have given me a review or added my story to their alerts. I really do appreciate it. Just a note to my readers: There will be a lot of flashbacks in this and the following chapters. This way you can get what happens to bring Neji and Tenten together and to this point in the story. I know not everyone likes flashbacks and I'm sorry, but it was the only way I could think of to do this. I hope you enjoy the story.

Chapter 1: The blackness

Tenten POV

The last thing Tenten remembered was using her Dragon's Breath jutsu on the enemy successfully. Seeing as she had just learned the technique and had hardly practiced it, for obvious reasons, she was surprised it turned out so good. She knew that it carried a heavy price tag with it though, being as it totally drained ones chakra. She wondered if she was going to die now. She was severely injured and weak before she had used that jutsu and it had drained what was left of her strength. She felt like she was floating through the sky. Occasionally she would hear Neji call out to her but she couldn't figure out where he was calling her from. Her eyes would not follow her command to open so she could look for him. She just wished that she could see his face and reassure him that she was okay because he sounded awfully worried about her. It felt like the wind was rushing past her face really fast. As she faded into the blackness once more she could have sworn she heard Neji say "Please, don't you leave me, Tenten." He knew the realities of being a shinobi as well as she did and if it was her time to leave then there was nothing she could do about it. She even remembered a time when she uttered almost those same words to him.

_FLASHBACK:_

_She was still waiting for word on those who had left to bring Sasuke back to Konoha. Well maybe she should be honest with herself; she was waiting for word on one particular person on that mission, Neji. She had a bad feeling that something had gone wrong on the mission. She was extremely worried about him. The hokage had sent medical ninjas out in case anyone had gotten hurt and she just knew Neji would be one of the injured that they brought back. She didn't know how she knew she just did. Just then she saw the medical ninjas return to the village they had two stretchers with bodies on them. With her heart pounding in her chest she walked towards the medical ninjas. "Please tell me who you have with you?" she had asked the first of them that she had come to. "We have Chouji Akimichi and Neji Hyuuga." Even though she knew that Neji was going to be one of the injured brought back she had not expected him to be brought home on a stretcher. "Please excuse us miss but both patients are critical and need to get to the hospital right away." She gasped at this piece of information. She walked over to the stretcher that held Neji with tears streaming down her face, leaned down to his ear, and whispered "Please don't leave me alone Neji. I won't be able to make it without you here with me." Then she watched with tears streaming down her face as they rushed off to the hospital with her heart. Of course Neji didn't realize that he held her heart in his hands and now he may never know._

_END FLASHBACK_

That wasn't the last time that she had said those words to him either. The time that stuck out most in her memory though was when they had finally decided to confess their feelings towards each other.

_FLASHBACK:_

_They were now 19 and she still hadn't gotten up the courage to tell her stoic teammate that she was in love with him. She had been in love with him for longer than she wanted to admit to even herself. They were at their regular training grounds waiting for Gai-sensei and Lee to return from their daily laps around the village so that their sensei could dismiss them for the day. Neji and her had finished their sparring match awhile ago and were now leaning against their favorite tree. Neji was meditating and she was thinking about him. She was snapped out of her train of thought when she heard Neji moan in pain. "Neji are you alright?" He slowly opened one eye to look at her. "Hn" he replied to show that he was in fact alright. "Are you sure you're alright? I heard you moan." At her voice he opened his other eye and stared intently into her own eyes. When she glimpsed in his eyes to verify his condition she gasped in surprise. In his eyes she saw pain but also something else, something that she dared not hope she was seeing in his eyes. Caring and an unidentifiable something else. "Ne-neji?" she stammered out questioningly while she cocked her head to the side slightly. All at once his eyes had become shuttered locking her out of his emotions. "Hn?" he questioned her with his eyebrow arching up nearly to his hairline. "Neji if I ask you a few questions would you give me an honest answer? Not just single syllable grunts but an actual answer?" He turned away from her and seemed to be considering her questions for a minute before he turned back to her and very carefully answered with a "yes I will". She took a deep breath to gather her courage and plunged ahead hoping that this would not destroy the friendship that they had attained throughout the years they had known each other. "First question. Why did I see pain in your eyes if you are not injured?" He closed his eyes and told her, "I never said I wasn't in pain, I'm just not physically hurt." She thought about this for a second before asking, "so your pain is emotional than?" "Yes." Just that simple one word answer no explanation, so how like him. It took her a bit longer to come up with her next question, "Neji is it your family causing you pain?" "No it is myself causing the pain. I have recently realized something and am afraid to follow through with what my mind and my heart are telling me to do." __**Wow a whole two sentences this must be serious, **__she thought to herself. "Why are you afraid Neji? I didn't think you ever let fear rule you?" He didn't answer right away and she was beginning to think she had offended him with that last question. She was just going to tell him to forget it when he started speaking again. "No you are right, I usually do not let fear rule me in any way, but this time there is someone else's well being also involved. Therefore I do not know how to proceed with what my heart tells me to do." She thought this over for a minute realizing that the someone else that he was talking about was a girl. A girl that he must have strong feelings for. It felt like someone was crushing the air from her lungs and that her heart was being ripped from her chest. She had never told him she loved him and now it was to late because he had feelings for someone else. "Neji this someone else whose well being you're considering, is it a girl?" she asked. "Yes" he said, confirming her worst fears. She tried to hold the tears back as she gave some him her advice. "Neji take it from me, if you have strong feelings for this girl then you should tell her how you feel. You shouldn't wait thinking that you have plenty of time because nobody knows what is going to happen tomorrow. You should definitely listen to your heart." With that being said she got up to leave before he noticed the tears that had started down her cheeks when she had been talking to him. "Tell Gai-sensei I will see him tomorrow I am going to go home now." She walked away from the man she loved with all her heart and soul as calmly as she could, even though she wanted to run and scream. She was just a few steps away when she felt Neji grab her wrist to stop her. "Why are you running Tenten?" she heard him ask. "I am not running Neji, I am walking." At this statement she was turned around, very roughly she might add, by an unhappy Neji. He seemed to stare in shock at the tears staining her cheeks before composing himself and angrily saying, "it appears that you are running to me and I am __not__ talking about the speed to which you are leaving." She stared at him confused not knowing what he was talking about but also amazed at the play of emotions going through his eyes right now. The grip that he had retained on her wrist eased up a bit as he slowly leaned his face into hers. She could feel his warm breath on her wet cheeks as he said, "Tenten please tell me what is wrong with you. Why are you crying? Did you not just say not to let fear rule __me__ so what about it ruling you?" The emotions in her once stoic teammate's eyes and his current actions gave her a tiny bit of hope that maybe he felt something for her as well. She thought __**if he has feelings for me, than why was he talking about another girl? **__ It occurred to her then that maybe, just maybe, she was the girl he was speaking of but she didn't want to hope to much in case she was wrong. She closed her eyes to think about what he said and how she should respond. She didn't want to confess her feelings to him, have him not return them, and then strain their friendship, as their friendship is all that kept her going day in and day out. She opened her eyes to look at him directly in his eyes so that she could gauge his reaction to her words. "Alright Neji you want to know so bad, I'll tell you but first you have to promise me that no matter what I say, or how you feel about it, you will not leave me. If you were to ever end our friendship I would have nothing left to live for in this life, so please don't ever leave me." Neji closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and when he opened them again it seemed to her that it looked like he felt at peace. "I promise to never leave you Tenten. Ever." She could tell by the look that he gave her that he meant what he said so she told him what he wanted to know. "Just listen and don't interrupt, you can say what you want when I'm done. If you don't let me finish I will probably never find the courage to do this again." She waited for his nod of acceptance before she continued. "I love you. I have since we were 12 and assigned to our team. At first you intimidated me with your glares and silence but as I got to know you I discovered who you were. You weren't the cold-hearted person that everyone made you out to be; in fact the opposite was true. You hid it really well and I think that me and our other teammates are the only ones who ever noticed that underneath your stoic nature beats a heart of gold. A heart that cares deeply for those you hold in high regard and let into your inner circle. One that I do not feel worthy of but want just the same. As time went by my feelings grew so much that I can no longer imagine myself without you by my side. You will always be the only man I love until the day I die. When you were talking about feeling something for a girl a few minutes ago I realized that I might have lost you to someone else and even though that nearly crushed me into little pieces, I knew that I had to be your best friend and give you the advice that I did so that you could be happy. That is all that has been important to me is your health and happiness. So now you know everything and you can speak your mind to me." She stood there waiting for him to either crush her to pieces with his denial or answer her dreams with his love. "First of all", he said, "I never realized that I had let my emotions be viewed by so many as I thought that you were the only one able to read me. Second of all, you are more than worthy to have my love. Although I might not have always shown it, you are a very strong and caring woman and I love you as well. Lastly in case you did not know it, you were the woman I was talking about when I said that I had realized that I had feelings for someone. I was afraid to tell you because __I__ was scared of ruining our friendship. I do not want to ever lose you. I was in pain because I was so close to you and I wanted to keep you by my side but at the same time my feelings kept telling me to take a risk and love you more deeply. You are the light in my darkness and if you were gone I would be left in nothing but an empty blackness that I could never escape."_

_END FLASBACK_

When Tenten felt herself aware once more she found herself in a large black room but other than being it being a room she didn't know where she was or how she got there. She tried to find something that she recognized in the room but was unsuccessful. She was searching for a door when she heard someone call out in the darkness, "Hello, Hyuuga Tenten. Are you ready to begin?"

**A/N: **Oh my. Who is calling out to Tenten and what do they mean is she ready? The answers will be answered later in the story. Next Chapter is from Neji's POV. I know the second flashback was a little long but it kind of took on a life of its own once I started it.


	3. Chapter 2: At the hospital

**Please Don't Leave Me**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto that honor belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

_Here it is at last, chapter 2. I am so sorry for the wait in between chapters but it has been a little hectic at my house with Holiday travels and kids at home on school break. I hope to release one chapter per week from now on._

**Chapter 2: At the hospital**

Neji sat in the sterile white room by his wife's side wondering when she would wake up and give him the smile that she always reserved for him. The room was silent except for the sound of the hospital machines beeping. He didn't mind the beeping though because it meant that she was still here with him. He has sat in this same chair for two weeks pretty much never leaving the room except to bathe in the shower room down the hall. He had even refused to go to the memorial service for his fallen teammate, Rock Lee, stating that he would not leave Tenten's side. He watched the memorial service from the hospital room window and described it to Tenten as it had progressed, thinking that she would have wanted to know that he had a decent service. Rock Lee had been like a brother to her and when she woke up and remembered his death she would take it so hard and grieve for a long time. The hospital staff, mostly Sakura, had even gone so far as to put a cot in her room so that he could sleep, although he rarely did.

He raised his head off the bed wearily and looked at her peacefully sleeping form. "Can you hear me Tenten? Do you even know that I am here waiting for you?" he asked. As he expected he didn't get any response from the form on the bed, but he did notice that her heart rate fluctuated slightly. He was encouraged by this slight proof that she was aware of her surroundings. At that moment the silence was broken by the door being opened. He turned toward the sound and saw Tsunade and Sakura walk in. "How's our patient?" she asked of Neji. "Well, her heart rate fluctuates when I talk to her Tsunade-sama," he replied. She looked at the numbers on the machine and wrote some things down on the chart before responding to him. "That's good." "Tsunade-sama how long will she be like this?" he asked. She glanced at him in annoyance since he seemed to ask the same question every time she walked in the room. "As I told you before Neji, I don't know how long. She had some pretty serious injuries and her chakra was totally depleted when you brought her in. I wish I could tell you something more but I can't." He sighed and put his head back down on the bed beside hers. "Neji," at the sound of his name he glanced up and looked at the two women, "I know this is going to do no good but I am going to say it anyhow. Go home. Get some rest. Spend some time with your kids." "But what if she wakes up and I'm not here," he replied. "I don't want to leave her alone." At this answer both women gave him a look of pity and left the room. "They just don't understand that I promised you I would never leave you", he told the sleeping woman beside him. At the sound of his voice her heart rate again fluctuated and he took that as a sign that she wanted him to stay with her. It had been two weeks since he had brought her here severely injured after their last mission. It had been even longer than that since he had seen their children. Hana and Ikuto were now 5, as they were twins, and Miki was just over one year old. They were both his and Tenten's pride and joy. He really did miss his children something fierce but knew that he couldn't leave his wife's side. He knew that she hated hospitals, in fact he thought that this would have helped wake up faster. He recalled quite well what happened the last time she was in a hospital.

_FLASHBACK_

_"Neji get me out of this hospital now", she had yelled at him. "Now now my beautiful, youthful flower you must stay here and regain your youthfulness", Gai-sensei had told her while striking his good guy pose. "You are so right Gai-sensei. Tenten you must listen to what Gai-sensei says and stay in the hospital until you are fully healed", Lee had said. "Neji please get me out of here I can't stand hospitals, you know that." He had waited until Gai and Lee had left the hospital room before grabbing his girlfriend and jumping out the window with her. He had taken her back the Hyuuga compound_ _where he would have the doctors kept on staff tend to her. He just couldn't stand to see her upset. He then went back later to inform the hospital staff what was going on so that they did not send out a search party, though he doubted they would have gone that far._

_END FLASHBACK_

At that thought he heard the hospital room door open again but just ignored it thinking that it was one of the many nurses coming in to administer his wife's medication. "DADDY!!" he heard screamed. He turned just in time to catch Ikuto and Hana as they launched themselves at him. "We missed you daddy when are you coming home", they whined in unison. "I'm sorry children but I have to stay with your mother. Do you understand?" They both nodded solemnly at him. He was so proud of his children for they understood that as part of the Hyuuga Clan it was expected of them to keep their emotions under control. He then looked at his younger cousin Hinata and greeted her noticing the picnic basket that she brought with her, "Hello, Hinata. Are you here to check up on me or Tenten?" She shyly smiled at him saying, "Both of you to be exact. I brought you some dinner and the twins wanted to tag along." He nodded at this and gave his normal response, "hn." She sat the basket next to his chair while he visited with his older two children. "When is mommy gonna wake up daddy?" Hana asked him. Hana was the older of the twins by three minutes and more outspoken then her brother. "I don't know when she is going to wake up sweetheart. Hopefully very soon she will home with us." He glanced back at his unconscious wife praying that he was not lying to his daughter. After what seemed like hours to him but in reality was only one hour Hinata gathered up the twins and left him alone in the room once more.

He wandered over to the only window in the room and sat on the ledge with the basket his cousin had left him. His stomach growled loudly at the sight of food before him and he realized just how long it had been since he had something to eat or drink. He made a mental note to thank Hinata the next time he saw her. He still had a difficult time believing that she was able to forgive him after what he did to her during the Chunin exams. They in fact had become quite close over the years relying on each other to help when dealing with the Elders of the Hyuuga Clan. She was the reason that he and Tenten had been able to marry each other instead of him marrying someone the Elders picked out for him.

_FLASHBACK_

_His Uncle Hiashi had approached him to let him know the Elders were holding a special session to start deliberations on finding him a bride before his twenty-first birthday. He thanked his uncle for the heads-up and his uncle had left him after that. The first person that he had looked for had been Tenten to let her know what the Hyuuga Elders were up to. He had found her at their training grounds practicing her taijutsu with Lee. He noticed that she had actually become very good and fast. He guessed that practicing with Lee she had to be quick to avoid getting seriously injured like the first time she practiced with Lee. Tenten noticed him standing there and called a break to Lee, "Lee let's take a short break so I can talk to Neji." Lee stopped coming at her and replied, "of course my youthful flower_ _take as long as you need I will do twenty laps around the training grounds while I wait." With that he sprinted off to do his laps. Neji and Tenten both just shook their heads at their green spandex clad teammate. She walked over and gave him a questioning glance. He closed his eyes to gather his courage to tell her what was going on. "The Clan Elders are starting deliberations for my bride finding. Uncle Hiashi let me know a little while ago." The shock he saw on her face just about did him in. "What are we going to do Neji? We have been dating for over a year now and they know that why would they look for a bride for you." He shook his head as he himself did not have an answer to her question. "I do not know Tenten let me speak with Hinata and see if she has any idea of what to do. I just thought I should let you know the situation first." "I will come with you to talk to Hinata. Can you wait until after my training session with Lee though?" He nodded his assent to her and jumped on his favorite tree branch to watch her practice. Two hours later they walked hand and hand to the Hyuuga compound to talk to his cousin. They found Hinata in the garden reading a book. Not wanted to startle his cousin he cleared his throat and she glanced up at him and Tenten. "N-n-neji-ni-san what brings you two here." Nodding at her he asked, "Hinata may we talk to you for a minute?" Hinata nodded in response so he told her what was going on and after hearing everything had agreed to help._

_END FLASHBACK_

Since she was the next head of the clan she was allowed to attend the meeting where he was not. She had told him that both her and his uncle had spoken on his and Tenten's behalf and that the elders had seemed impressed by what they had said. She went on to inform him that she had not been allowed to stay for the final outcome however. Neji had received a summons to his uncle's study the day after the meeting. 

_FLASHBACK_

_He had sat in front of his uncle with a glass of tea in his hands for fifteen minutes before Hiashi had sighed and started speaking. "As you know nephew the elders scheduled a special session to discuss your future bride." Neji nodded in response to his uncle not knowing if he would receive good news or not. "Neji they have made their decision on whom you shall marry." he stopped and took a sip of his tea looking at him over his tea cup while he drank. Carefully keeping his face blank of all emotion so that his uncle could not see his turmoil Neji waited for his uncle to continue. Hiashi watched his nephew for a few moments before continuing the conversation. "They have decided that Tenten's Kekki Genkai would be a great asset to the Hyuuga Clan so they are issuing an invitation to a formal dinner to her and at the dinner they will ask her some questions. Proceeding the dinner if all goes well, which I do not see why it would not, we will host a party at the compound for the villagers where your engagement will be announced to everyone." Neji could not help it he stared in shock at his uncle while his uncle smirked at him. His uncle spoke to him for a few more minutes than dismissed him to go inform Tenten of the situation._

_END FLASHBACK_

He looked back over to his wife grateful that it had turned out the way it had. He did not know what he would have done if they had not allowed him to marry the women that he had loved since he was fifteen.

**A/N **_**The next couple of chapters will be from Tenten's POV. They will be dealing with what happens in the black room and we find out who called out to Tenten at the end of the last chapter. I hope you are all enjoying the story so far. Please review and let me know how you like it.**_


End file.
